Anti-tussives are substances that specifically inhibit or suppress the act of coughing. Such inhibition may be due to (1) depression of medullary center or associated higher centers (2) increased threshold of periphery reflexogenous zones (3) interruption of tussal impulses in the afferent limb of cough reflex (4) inhibition of conduction along the motor pathways and (5) removal of irritants by facilitating bronchial drainage and mucociliary activity.
Wide arrays of antitussive combinations are commercially available. The combinations can consist of two to four active ingredients and include any combination of an antitussive plus sympathomimetics, antihistamines, expectorants and/or analgesics. These cough products are very controversial and rarely offer an advantage.
The over-the-counter (OTC) market has offered products for throat soothing for many years. Majorities of these products utilize phenol as their active ingredient. Phenol is the simple alcohol derivative of benzene. Both of these chemicals are listed by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) as extremely carcinogenic.
Histamine is an endogenous mediator and plays an important role in bronchoconstriction. Mainly it acts through different receptors in the bronchial muscle. The histamine is stored in the mast cells during stress or abnormal physiological function, the mast cell degranulates and the histamine is released. The mediator histamine is playing a key role in the cough and throat infections.
A natural non-carcinogenic formulation for treatment of cough, soothing of throat is an alternative of phenol especially for the speakers, who need to speak for a longer duration of time, to prevent the breakdown of voice and dryness of the mouth. Hitherto, an herbal formulation is the need of the hour having throat soothing activity along with prevention of dryness of mouth and breaking of voice. Only on oral tradition prevalent in certain group of South Indian Brahmin (Aiyangar) particularly those families who participate in vedic recital for days together, (one of the authors of this patent is from one such family) we have proposed an entirely novel formulation(s). These people use Piper cubeba for clearing throats and to maintain a healthy and sound vocal system, while they recite veda continuously for over a week. Based on this lead we propose a novel formulation(s) in a combination with a better dosage form and activity.
As a result of intensive study conducted by the inventors, with the aim of achieving aforementioned objectives, new formulations for oral ingestion were developed employing herbal drugs which are from natural origin, incorporating them into binders and diluting agents to form oral dosage forms.